Thyroid hormones and depression: The health in men study

Context: Current practice guidelines suggest that thyroid function tests should be an integral part of the assessment of adults presenting with a depressive episode, although there is a paucity of data available to support such a recommendation. Objective: To determine if biochemical markers of thyr...

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Main Authors: Almeida, O., Alfonso, Helman, Flicker, L., Hankey, G., Chubb, S., Yeap, B.
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2011
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/5605
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author Almeida, O.
Alfonso, Helman
Flicker, L.
Hankey, G.
Chubb, S.
Yeap, B.
author_facet Almeida, O.
Alfonso, Helman
Flicker, L.
Hankey, G.
Chubb, S.
Yeap, B.
author_sort Almeida, O.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Context: Current practice guidelines suggest that thyroid function tests should be an integral part of the assessment of adults presenting with a depressive episode, although there is a paucity of data available to support such a recommendation. Objective: To determine if biochemical markers of thyroid dysfunction are associated with prevalent and incident clinically significant depressive symptoms. Design: Cross-sectional and cohort studies. Patients: Community-dwelling sample of 3,932 men age 69 to 87 free of overt thyroid disease. Main Outcome Measures: We used the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale to ascertain the presence of prevalent clinically significant depressive symptoms, and the Western Australia Data Linkage System to establish the onset of a depressive episode according to the International Classification of Diseases. Results: The serum concentration of thyroid-stimulating hormone and free thyroxine (fT4) did not affect the odds of prevalent or the hazard of incident depression. The odds of prevalent depression were 0.8 (95% CI: = 0.5-1.3) for men with subclinical hypothyroidism and 1.4 (95% CI: = 0.3-5.8) for those with subclinical hyperthyroidism. The hazard ratio of incident depression associated with subclinical hypothyroidism was 0.7 (95% CI: = 0.3-1.9). No men with subclinical hyperthyroidism developed depression during the follow-up period of 5.5 ± 1.4 years. Conclusions: Subclinical thyroid disease is not associated with prevalent or incident depression in older men. These findings do not support the routine screening of subclinical thyroid dysfunction among older adults with depression. © 2011 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-56052017-09-13T14:39:53Z Thyroid hormones and depression: The health in men study Almeida, O. Alfonso, Helman Flicker, L. Hankey, G. Chubb, S. Yeap, B. Context: Current practice guidelines suggest that thyroid function tests should be an integral part of the assessment of adults presenting with a depressive episode, although there is a paucity of data available to support such a recommendation. Objective: To determine if biochemical markers of thyroid dysfunction are associated with prevalent and incident clinically significant depressive symptoms. Design: Cross-sectional and cohort studies. Patients: Community-dwelling sample of 3,932 men age 69 to 87 free of overt thyroid disease. Main Outcome Measures: We used the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale to ascertain the presence of prevalent clinically significant depressive symptoms, and the Western Australia Data Linkage System to establish the onset of a depressive episode according to the International Classification of Diseases. Results: The serum concentration of thyroid-stimulating hormone and free thyroxine (fT4) did not affect the odds of prevalent or the hazard of incident depression. The odds of prevalent depression were 0.8 (95% CI: = 0.5-1.3) for men with subclinical hypothyroidism and 1.4 (95% CI: = 0.3-5.8) for those with subclinical hyperthyroidism. The hazard ratio of incident depression associated with subclinical hypothyroidism was 0.7 (95% CI: = 0.3-1.9). No men with subclinical hyperthyroidism developed depression during the follow-up period of 5.5 ± 1.4 years. Conclusions: Subclinical thyroid disease is not associated with prevalent or incident depression in older men. These findings do not support the routine screening of subclinical thyroid dysfunction among older adults with depression. © 2011 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. 2011 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/5605 10.1097/JGP.0b013e31820dcad5 restricted
spellingShingle Almeida, O.
Alfonso, Helman
Flicker, L.
Hankey, G.
Chubb, S.
Yeap, B.
Thyroid hormones and depression: The health in men study
title Thyroid hormones and depression: The health in men study
title_full Thyroid hormones and depression: The health in men study
title_fullStr Thyroid hormones and depression: The health in men study
title_full_unstemmed Thyroid hormones and depression: The health in men study
title_short Thyroid hormones and depression: The health in men study
title_sort thyroid hormones and depression: the health in men study
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/5605